To tell you the truth, there are many reactions online, including yours, that involves the movie “Black Panther”. Some of the reactions been has been in the scenario of ‘winners vs losers’. I have to commend the dozen of so opinions about why the movie was good, and why the movie was bad for the Chinese audience. However, I when I finished watching your report, I believe it did little next to nothing on understanding the true reason why the movie was received negatively to the Chinese movie going audience.
Of course, when the marketers for the movie studio Marvel, just as any studio, when they want to market a movie, they have to push it toward a demographic audience with the data that they currently have about movie goers. With that being said, they knew before the movie came out, that this movie would be received negatively to the Chinese moving going audience. Therefore, when it came to marketing, they did not push the movie to be marketed in the region well, whereas, they pushed the movie in the areas where the demographics are more diverse, which includes communities were they have the qualified preconditions: common history or culture.
The other thing that I wanted to point out was the fact that you mentioned that you do not know the difference between DC and Marvel characters, which means that you already had prejudices that would lead some biases in your researching.
When you mentioned about white, and pre-colonist cultures, and again, it was a mistake. Emperors of China have been dealing with people of color for centuries. With that being said, a part of Chinese culture, the Mongols, those slightly dark of skin, ruled China for a period of time. But as for color…it made no significance when it came to trading with merchants from the southern India and also Arabia. My last point in your argument is that I want to mention many soldiers on the frontier areas of the kingdoms were often exposed to conditions that would change their skin color. In other words, you say… “Chinese people are discriminatory against those who were ‘a bit tan’ because ‘they worked in the sun’, and that they are of ‘a lower class’ would cause disillusionment and disharmony among the lords, who had to maintain the lands for the Emperor. There may be some research that may say otherwise, but this whole point or argument about skin color, in my opinion, has to do what the environment is right now.
Racial Insensitive, and again, I have to make this clear. China and the rest of the Oriental countries are in fact, very diverse, with a wide range or races besides the dominant Han.
Because of the culture revolution and the mass exodus of scholars ( and executions of them), The majority of people of the People’s Republic of China , especially in rural areas, has been largely absent for a long period of time, but still conducted its affairs with other nations. On the other hand, rural China, those common workers, had little to no contact with the outside world until the opening period of 1997,. With the changes in opening up brought lots of attention to international organizations, such as the United Nations, who worked together with the PRC to create civil services for the mainland. But this massive change brought a huge imbalance that you see today in China, both economically and educationally.
In other words, The PRC (People’s Republic of China) practiced educational reforms, which did bring a lot back to China, but the fact of the matter is that there are a couple of generations of Chinese that are uneducated, or do not share the same diverse education as the West. However, the PRC is doing much better in placing a value on education equality, such as the outstanding Shanghai region. But there are many regions China that extremely improvised. But it still has a long way to go in providing equal opportunities for all areas.
When making an argument, or reporting, please tell the audience where did this research came from. First, I am aware of the movie web site review, as it was obviously put on the power point. But as for the quote about “the overwhelming hand ethnic majority has made the population deaf to the nuances of racial political correctness”. I didn’t catch the name of the scholar you mention, for I like to read what else he/she had to say. *** But it is interesting when you point out to the cinematographer, Rachel Morrison***
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when you are in the public arena online (the world) especially in this day and age, we must provide solid evidences, and have a conversation with the audience in the solid facts that you provide to them. We must learn from each other to find the truth to all our questions. I hope next time that you can be able to invite the people who look at the video blog for a discussion.
I am interesting in seeing how did each region or province did when it came to ticket sales of the movie, and if the reaction was positive or negative from the movie goers. My guess is that those who live in areas, mainly costal cities, or areas where the population of people hold a bachelors degree or higher, then it would be positive ratings. And another region in which I think the movie would be popular would be Xinjiang.
In conclusion, the People’s Republic of China is a big country, and the political, social and economic environment that it is currently is doesn’t encourage a movie like “Black Panther to be successful. However, the PRC has many factors that prevents movies like this from being widely accepted. These includes media factors, economic factors, and educational factors.